Help Moving Data to New Install of OS

Charles218

I recently did a clean install of my MacBook and now I am having a great deal of trouble getting Quicken up and running on the new install. I have Quicken for Mac 15, and I installed High Sierra on the new install and was coming from High Sierra on the former install. I didn't think to export my data before I erased the drive, though I do have backups of the Quicken folder in the old Library - Application Support.

I put a copy of the old Quicken folder, (from Library- Application Support) into the new install, but when I start Q it treats it as new and it takes me to a "Let's get started" window where the options are:

1. Start from scratch
2. Start from a Quicken Essentials file
3. Start from a Quicken Mac 2007 File
4. Start from a Quicken Windows file

Well, I don't want any of those, I want an option to take over where I left off and start from my Q 2015 file. It appears that Quicken thinks that I have never run Q 2015 before. How do I get past this prompt and into the program. Is there a file in the new install that I could edit or remove?

jacobs

All you need to do is ignore the options on the Let's Get Started screen and go to File > Open. Navigate to the location of your Quicken 2015 data file and select it. Your file will open, and Quicken will automatically open that file each time you launch it going forward.

(Alternatively, you could double-click on the Quicken data file, which will cause Quicken to launch and open that file.)

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I'm a fellow user like you, and not a shill for Quicken, but after you get settled in on the new Mac, you might want to consider upgrading your Quicken because there have been so many improvements made since Quicken 2015 (which was the original release fo the modern Quicken for Mac). I think the current Quicken Mac is a massive improvement over Quicken 2015. But if you don't want to get tied into the annual subscription of the current Quicken Mac, you might see if you can find someone selling a copy of Quicken 2017 for a nominal cost on eBay or elsewhere; even the move forward from 2015 to 2017 yields some significant improvements.

Charles218

Jacobs, thanks for the fast response, I've been working on this for several hours over the past couple of days and I almost got to the point of giving up on it. So I tried clicking on the file and I get the same results, I need to select one of the four options that I listed in my original post. Somehow it thinks that I am using Q for the first time.

If I get this figured out, next I may have to get past Q's login as it does not recognize my User ID and/or Password. I know that I have it correct as I use a password manager and have tried the three that I have saved over the years.

Q 2017 sounds like a good idea, though I am a very light user and only rely on it for tracking a few expenses for my self employed teaching.

Thanks!!!

jacobs

@Charles218  So let's dig a little deeper into the folder you installed into the Library > Application Support folder. You should have a Quicken 2015 folder, and inside that there should be a few folders, of which the key one is Documents. Inside that is where your data file would be living -- if you never moved it to a different location on your Mac. Inside Documents, do you have one or more files ending with .quicken2015? That's what a Quicken 2015 data file would look like.

Or there's another possibility. Do you recall if you purchased Quicken 2015 from the Apple Mac App Store? If so, those early versions of Quicken Mac downloaded from the App Store were placed by default in a different location inside the same user Library folder:
   Containers > com.intuit.Quicken.2015 > Data > Library > Application Support 

   > Quicken 2015 > Documents

If there's nothing in either of those locations, it means you sometime in the past moved your data file to a different location. Do a Finder search for ".quicken2015" to see if you can find any data files anywhere else.

If you are unable to locate your .quicken2015 data file, do you have any other form of backup from before you wiped your hard drive? Time Machine perhaps? Unfortunately, if you had your data file in some other location and didn't back it up at all before you wiped the drive, you might be out of luck. I hope that's not the case. Good luck searching, and let us know if you have success.

Charles218

Well, you are right, I only have one file inside the "Documents" folder, it is <
quickenData.quicken2015>. That file came from my online BackBlaze backup, my other back up is a Super Duper clone, but I can't figure out how to get to the Library on the external drive where it resides. Unfortunately, both of my Time Machine backups are problematic, the files do not show up. I think they are there, I'm just having a problem getting to them.

I will check again in the morning.

Thanks!!!

jacobs

Here's a trick for getting inside the user Library file on your Time Machine. First, navigate to inside the Library folder, then enter Time Machine; Time Machine will open ion the same location, e.g. inside the otherwise hidden Library folder.

Another trick that might help with the external SuperDuper drive: Press Comand+Shift+period and macOS will display hidden files and folders. Open Macintosh HD on your boot drive to see what it does. I believe this will carry over to the external drive as well, but can't check it right now. Pressing Command-Shift-period again will turn off showing invisible files (it toggles on and off).

Charles218

Jacobs, thanks again for your very helpful messages, here is where I stand. I have been able to get what I believe is the most recent TM Quicken folder into the Application Support folder within my Library. Before doing that I deleted all traces of the Quicken install and reinstalled from my original CD. I put the TM backup folder into Application Support and then booted Q for the first time. I now need to enter my Intuit user name and password, while I have both of those it fails each time I try. I have tried several times over three days to retrieve a lost password but Intuit's system fails and does not follow through and send an email with instructions. I'm now waiting for tomorrow morning when I can call and speak to tech support so that I can get past the login screen.

jacobs

Your problem sounds like it's that you installed an old version of Quicken 2015. Intuit used to own Quicken, but Quicken has been a separate company for more than four years now. Part of the transition required everyone to migrate from an old Intuit ID to a new Quicken ID. By reinstalling from a CD, you've installed the original version of Quicken 2015 -- which registered itself through Intuit. That no longer works (as you've found), and because Quicken 2015 is long-discontinued software, I don't think Quicken Support will help you get an updated version. the key may be whether you can restore the latest version of Quicken 2015 you had on your TM backup. If you have the updated final version of Quicken 2015 -- version 2.9.7 -- it will connect to Quicken.com rather than Intuit and you should be back in business.

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Charles218

Well now it should be clear that I have been a very casual user of Quicken, virtually all of the information in your most recent post is news to me. I'm thinking that now would be a good time to cut my losses and look around for another program that will fit my needs. I've used Quicken for as far back as I can remember, but clearly it has changed with time and starting our fresh and looking around to see what options are out there seems like a prudent step at this time.

Jacob, thanks so much for your patience and understanding in helping, I very much appreciate it.

jacobs

@Charles208  I understand if you decide this is a good time for you to consider alternatives. I just wanted to note that since you have a Time Machine backup, and the Time Machine backup contains your Quicken 2015 application prior to you reinstalling, you're (hopefully) just a few seconds away from being back to where you were before this started. In Time Machine, go to your Applications folder, locate the Quicken 2015 app, and restore it to your live hard drive (replacing the version you installed from the CD). With the app installed and your data file recovered, you should now be able to double-click on the data file and have it launch Quicken 2015 successfully.

Best wishes, whatever you decide to do.

Charles218

Jacob, once again, you are 100% right, this worked and I am exactly where I left off. What a great ahh! moment when the file opened up and all of my transactions and categories were intact. So I will stick with this for now, it certainly beats moving to something different and having to deal with a totally new learning curve.

Again thanks for your time and efforts on my behalf!!!

jacobs

@Charles218 Yea, I'm glad it worked and you're back in business!

As I mentioned earlier in the conversation, at some point, you might want to consider upgrading from Quicken 2015, because there's been a lot improved in the program over the past 5 years. If 2015 meets all your needs and works fine on your current Mac and macOS, perhaps there's no need. If you wish it could do better reports, loans, budgets, saved transactions, or other things which were either rudimentary or non-existent in Quicken 2015, or if you plan to update your operating system, then you might find it beneficial to update Quicken. The good thing is that the user interface is still pretty similar, so there won't be a steep learning curve.

If you can find a copy of Quicken 2017 someone's selling inexpensively, that will move you forward somewhat without getting into the cost of the current subscription version. Or you can buy a one-year subscription to get the latest version, and then decide whether it's worth it to you to maintain the subscription or let it lapse after a year. (You can use Quicken Mac with a lapsed subscription for all manual tasks; it just doesn't download transactions. The lapsed version also "steals" the right side of your Quicken screen for a persistent reminder to upgrade, but if you can live with that, you don't need to continue the subscription.)

The concern I have for people who stick with an old version is whether Quicken will always have an upgrade path to the current version. The Quicken developers make changes to the database a few times a year, and so they need to maintain code in the program to perform each database update from whatever version a user is updating. At some point, they may say, "we're only going to support upgrades from Quicken 2017 or later", or version x.x. or later -- and for people on an older version, there may not be a path forward. I have no knowledge of such plans; I've just seen this sort of thing play out over time with Quicken (and other software). Thus my advice to consider upgrading at some point -- definitely not urgent to do today -- so you don't find yourself in a few years with no way forward.